Shakespeare in the park draws largest crowd in years
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CHARLO – As the sun peeked between giant weeping willow trees and reflected off the rolling water of a small creek, more than 200 theatre fans from as far as Kalispell came together on a cool summer’s evening to enjoy the comedy of William Shakespeare’s "The Merchant of Venice" at Palmer Park in Charlo. For the past 20 years Charlo has welcomed Montana Shakespeare in the Park (MSIP), a traveling group from Montana State University in Bozeman, to perform Shakespeare classics. According to park owner Skip Palmer, this year held the largest crowd in the past six years.
“It went really well,” Ninepipe Arts Group President Caroline Myhre said. “We had a big crowd and no rain.”
According to Myhre, the Charlo Recreation Club first brought the traveling group to Charlo years ago, but when the club went out of business, there wasn’t an organization to continue sponsoring the annual performance. That’s when Tish Herries helped found the Ninepipe Arts Group to get MSIP back to Charlo.
Actors in the traveling group come from around the nation to perform more than 70 shows in Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming in the summer months of June through Sept. The productions are free-of-charge, and dinner and beverage sales help raise funds for the Ninepipe Arts Group student scholarship.
Myhre says the shows are always a crowd pleaser, as the actors make the difficult plays easier to understand, allowing young children and adults alike to enjoy the performance.
“They make it easy to understand, which is good for the kids,” Myhre said. “They (children) say it’s fun and that they understood a Shakespeare play.”
Myhre added the support from the community is what makes the evening such a success. She says park owners Skip and Sue Palmer offer a lot of help to make the annual event a big success each year.
The crowd was so large this year, that they even ran out of some food by the time the show got underway. According to Myhre, Kathy Senkler was responsible for this year’s food.
“They really go out of their way to put this on,” she noted. “Charlo schools loaned us the chairs and if it rained they would open their gym up for the show. It’s great how well supported it’s been.”
